Dre Greenlaw wasn’t happy with the Denver Broncos.
But, not necessarily that he wasn’t happy with the coaches or the scheme, or even his teammates.
More the way things worked out for him last year.
Dre Greenlaw wasn’t happy with Denver Broncos in 2025
It was a surprising thing to hear the veteran linebacker admit recently. He was on Terron Armstead’s “The Set” podcast when he said it on Tuesday.
“For me, it was like, the fact that I’m not healthy, I don’t feel that twitch or that gear that I felt like I need to have, but obviously I’m out here trying to do everything I can to be on the field,” Greenlaw explained. “It makes it tough when you pay a guy $11 million and he’s only on the field 50 percent of the time. It made it tough for me. It made it to the point where it kind of makes you not happy.”
The fact that Greenlaw mentioned his salary there makes it seem like he was cognizant he’s costing the team a lot of money and he actually cared, too. He even felt bad for taking reps from Justin Strnad.
“Now I’ve got to slowly come in and take reps from somebody else, which the linebackers were playing really, really good at the time, so now I’m just taking reps from this guy,” Greenlaw continued. “And now it’s like, OK, we’re splitting reps, how are we going to do it? One week it’s this, one week it’s that, and it’s like, I’ve never been in that position before. Yeah, I just wasn’t happy. That’s really what it boiled down to at the end of the day.
“Everything works out for a reason. I don’t regret none of it. I’m thankful for it all, for Sean [Payton] and everybody that accepted me into that organization, teammates and all. But, yeah, I’m excited to be a Niner.”
The free agency move didn’t work out for either party as they hoped
Greenlaw was frustrated his body wasn’t healthy enough to keep him in the starting lineup, and so were Broncos fans. And likely the front office, too.
Denver signed Greenlaw to be an impact player on the defense in the middle of the field. He was supposed to be the linebacker that covered opposing tight ends and running backs, a deficiency in Denver for years.
And when he wasn’t doing that, the linebacker would be filling gaps and even sacking quarterbacks from time to time.
Instead, he didn’t play until Week 7, and then got suspended in his first game for cussing out an official. From Week 9-Week 15 he played about two-thirds of the defensive snaps, but he wasn’t much of an impact player.
Nothing like Talanoa Hufanga was last year. Both Greenlaw and Hufanga came over from San Francisco the linebacker was expected to be a bigger deal than the safety. But the opposite was true.
Ultimately, it was a one-year pit-stop for the veteran linebacker, and here’s hoping he regains his Pro Bowl form back in the friendly confines of Levi’s Stadium.